So we have Yonder Comes Sin that leans heavily on the Jumping jack Flash riff, and Making A Liar that sounds like You Can't Always Get What You Want from the same session? Maybe Bob was trying to compose a whole religious album based on the melodies of The Rolling Stones!

"you must have been beautiful when you were living". Man, what a punch in the face this sentence is.

The lyrics are quite compelling, but I think that, since the sentences are so long, the pivotal "pun" (the making-a-a-liar-out-of-me punchline contradicting all the previous statements) is maybe more understandable on the page than from hearing the words.

Musically I don't hear too much Stones in the melody. More like a Saving Grace + Absolutely Sweet Marie without the turnaround.

Calling it a lost masterpiece is of course a bad case of hyperbole. It's a flawed song with touches of genius.The fact that it's come to light 37 years after the date in pristine sound quality is one hell of a bonus to my mind.

"Some of these bootleggers, they make pretty good stuffPlenty of places to hide things here if you wanna hide ’em bad enough I’m staying with Aunt Sally, but you know, she’s not really my aunt Some of these memories you can learn to live with and some of them you can’t"

I don't think that Making a Liar Out of Me is directed to any one person, not even a fictional one. Dylan here employs the same perspective as he does in Property of Jesus and When You Gonna Wake Up, Dead Man, and Watered Down Love: he addresses the unfaithful, apostate 'world' as a person. Hence accusations of sins such as sacrificing children to false gods, ignoring the orphans and building the tower of Babel can be levied.

In scripture this was common practice, especially in the Old Testament. Check Ezkiel 16, Hosea 2 and Jeremiah 2-5 for extended monologues about the Nation of Israel as a wayward unfaithful wife.

And it's that angle that is picked, in my opinion, in the case of this particular song. A well known scripture in the New Testament says 'He who does not believe God has made Him a liar'. There are more bible references that labour on this point ('Let God be true and every man a liar', among others).

We're still in the hard core Christian phase here, along with about half of Shot of Love, and the song is full (did I want to say riddled?) with scripture references. I mention Shot of Love because this is from Oct1980, and would, if finished and released, have ended up on that album.

Verse 1 'Feet of clay' originated from Daniel 2:33'Destroyed by your inventions' Dt 28:20 'You will be destroyed because of the wickedness of your inventions'

Verse 2 The 'promised land', and its conquest and defence are throughout Old Testament scripture but esoecially in Joshua 1-24. 'sow discord among brothers' Literal quotation of Proverbs 6:19 (he who soweth discord among brethren')Remember the cries of the orphans and their mothers Job 29:12 'I saved the needy who cried and the orphan' Ps 9:12 'He does not forget the cry of the poor'.

Verse 3 Flesh and blood you're drinking Jn 6:54 'He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life'Turning virgins into merchendise Nehemiah 5:5 'We are forced to sell our children as slaves, some of our daughters are already sold off' Joel 3:8'You have sold your sons and daughters'

Verse 4 Rumbling earth. At least 45 references on the earth trembling, often as an apocalyptic sign of impending judgment. Hebrews 12:26 'Once more will I make the earth to tremble'Stand up unafraid to believe in justice Job 11:14,15 'If you put iniquity awayyou will stand firm without fear'.

Verse 5 Sacrificing children to false gods. Unsurprisingly many references here, mostly to Moloch and Baal. Jer 19:5 'They built altars to Baal to sacrifice theirchildren to him in the fire' Ex 16:36 'You worshipped disgusting idols and sacrificedyour children as offerings'. The Tower of Babel is a Bible story found in Genesis 11:1-9. Man started to build a tower to heaven. God destroyed the tower eventually and confused the language of the builders, thus causing the phenomenon of multiple languages.

All that to say that there's just too much here. A very obvious reading of Making a Liar, the most obvious one, is as a prophetic song from God's perspective to and about the unfaithful earthlings. Let me know what you think.

Absolutely outstanding analysis. Thinking of it as from God's perspective makes sense of the whole thing. Dare I add that the person God is talking to might be "Bob Dylan", who despite his best efforts was having trouble following the prescribed path of righteousness?

When I heard it, I immediately thought of "Driftin' too far from shore". The verse structures are almost identical - although "Making a liar" is a vastly superior song, for all the occasional line that could have used some polishing.

So we have Yonder Comes Sin that leans heavily on the Jumping jack Flash riff, and Making A Liar that sounds like You Can't Always Get What You Want from the same session? Maybe Bob was trying to compose a whole religious album based on the melodies of The Rolling Stones!

If I might squeeze in between the two of you, I think it could fit into Tempest, which with Pay In Blood already has a touch of the Stones (I must qualify that I only speak of the lyrics, as I don't want to hear the song until my box-set arrives).

I listened to it once. I'm seeing it hailed as a masterpiece but its too early for me to jump on that bandwagon. Blind Willie McTell was a masterpiece coming out of the gate but I'll need to listen to this again... probably several times.

I listened to it once. I'm seeing it hailed as a masterpiece but its too early for me to jump on that bandwagon. Blind Willie McTell was a masterpiece coming out of the gate but I'll need to listen to this again... probably several times.

Interesting song. The lack of any mention of God/Jesus makes me wonder if the song might have been written at an earlier date, perhaps Street Legal era or even as far back as BOTT. Resonances of Idiot Wind here.

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